Balder the Beautiful, Volume I. eBook

Sec. 4. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the
Indians of North America, pp. 41-55.—­Seclusion
of girls at puberty among the Indians of California,
41-43; among the Indians of Washington State, 43; among
the Nootka Indians of Vancouver Island, 43 sq.;
among the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands,
44 sq.; among the Tlingit Indians of Alaska,
45 sq.; among the Tsetsaut and Bella Coola Indians
of British Columbia, 46 sq.; among the Tinneh
Indians of British Columbia, 47 sq.; among
the Tinneh Indians of Alaska, 48 sq.; among
the Thompson Indians of British Columbia, 49-52; among
the Lillooet Indians of British Columbia, 52 sq.;
among the Shuswap Indians of British Columbia, 53
sq.; among the Delaware and Cheyenne Indians,
54 sq.; among the Esquimaux, 55 sq.

Sec. 5. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the
Indians of South America, pp. 56-68.—­Seclusion
of girls at puberty among the Guaranis, Chiriguanos,
and Lengua Indians, 56 sq.; among the Yuracares
of Bolivia, 57 sq.; among the Indians of the
Gran Chaco, 58 sq.; among the Indians of Brazil,
59 sq.; among the Indians of Guiana, 60 sq.;
beating the girls and stinging them with ants, 61;
stinging young men with ants and wasps as an initiatory
rite, 61-63; stinging men and women with ants to improve
their character or health or to render them invulnerable,
63 sq.; in such cases the beating or stinging
was originally a purification, not a test of courage
and endurance, 65 sq.; this explanation confirmed
by the beating of girls among the Banivas of the Orinoco
to rid them of a demon, 66-68; symptoms of puberty
in a girl regarded as wounds inflicted on her by a
demon, 68.

Sec. 6. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in India
and Cambodia, pp. 68-70.—­Seclusion
of girls at puberty among the Hindoos, 68; in Southern
India, 68-70; in Cambodia, 70.

Sec. 7. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in Folk-tales,
pp. 70-76.—­Danish story of the girl who
might not see the sun, 70-72; Tyrolese story of the
girl who might not see the sun, 72; modern Greek stories
of the maid who might not see the sun, 72 sq.;
ancient Greek story of Danae and its parallel in a
Kirghiz legend, 73 sq.; impregnation of women
by the sun in legends, 74 sq.; traces in marriage
customs of the belief that women can be impregnated
by the sun, 75; belief in the impregnation of women
by the moon, 75 sq.

Sec. 8. Reasons for the Seclusion of Girls at Puberty,
pp. 76-100.—­The reason for the seclusion
of girls at puberty is the dread of menstruous blood,
76; dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the
aborigines of Australia, 76-78; in Torres Straits
Islands, New Guinea, Galela, and Sumatra, 78 sq.;
among the tribes of South Africa, 79 sq.; among
the tribes of Central and East Africa, 80-82; among
the tribes of West Africa, 82; powerful influence